Mnemonics
memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
Flashbulb Memory
a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.
Recall
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
Proactive interference
the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.
Episodic Memory
Explicit memories that have a time and a place.
Chunking
organizing items into familiar, manageable units in STM because space is limited to 7 bits. This increasing the efficiency of STM.
Amnesia
The loss of memory
Recognition
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
Retroactive Interference
The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.
Procedural Memory
Implicit memories (retrieved unconsciously) which involved motor skills; for example; riding a bike, typing, and tying a shoe.
Iconic memory
a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.
Implicit Memory
retention independent of conscious recollection. (Also called non-declarative or procedural memory.)
Relearning
a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
Curve of forgetting
Indicates LTM decay over time. Rapid decay occurs within the first 20 minutes and then memory decay slows down to 20-30% over 30 days.
Echoic memory
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.
Explicit Memory
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." (Also called declarative memory.)
Priming
the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response.
Misinformation Effect
incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Connecting new information with memories already stored in LTM.
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.
Hippocampus
a neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.
Mood-congruent memory
the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.
Source Amnesia/Misattribution
attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.
Deep processing
Similar to elaboratiave rehearsal; connecting semantics of a new word to LTM which builds a strong memory trace that is resistant to memory decay.